Читать книгу Dead Men Don't Lie - Jackson Cain - Страница 36

Chapter 23

When Antonio returned to the flatcar, he found two soldados dragging their Gatling out of the back of the boxcar. Sonora’s biggest, most profitable company, the Conquistador Gold Mining Consortium, was shipping the train’s gold, and they had brought the gun along to secure their gold shipment. Antonio smiled to himself. It was a weapon he knew well. You had to fire it in short bursts or else the black powder would foul the breech. Still it was an overpowering weapon if used properly. Antonio knew how to use it properly.

Weighing only sixty pounds, it was less than four feet in length, so the soldados had little trouble hauling and hoisting it up to the roof of the boxcar. Aided by a man inside, they quickly bolted it into the roof through predrilled holes.

Antonio felt a little better. The Gatling would provide some cover for Rachel, Eléna, and himself.

He climbed the neighboring boxcar’s end-ladder and helped the soldados lock down the big gun. The gold company’s Gatling was in good shape—clean and well oiled. It fired its rounds through a cycle of eight one-inch-diameter revolving barrels, arranged in a circle. The gunner turned a crank, the barrels revolved, and when one came under the hammer, it fired. The shell casing was instantly ejected, and another bullet—from a hopper full of rounds—was dropped into the receiving mechanism, which fed the round into that barrel’s empty chamber. The next loaded barrel then came under the hammer. The entire operation was automatic—untouched by human hands—save for the gunner’s turning of the crank.

Everything was in order. After checking the weapon out, Antonio was finished. He climbed down the boxcar’s end-ladder onto the flatcar below.

“How does it look?” Eléna asked. She was still sitting on the bed of the flatcar, cradling Rachel’s head.

“The Gatling’s in good shape,” Antonio said, “and the men up there seem to know what they’re doing.”

“Why do they need two men up there?” Eléna asked.

“Reloading the Gatling is fast and simple, but having a loader working alongside you speeds up the process,” Antonio said, glancing around the side of the boxcar, trying to get a glimpse of the men in front of the locomotive, struggling to clear the fallen cottonwood from the track.

He turned to Eléna and handed her the first weapon.

“If they come at you, start with the twelve-gauge double-barrel Greener.”

He handed her the shotgun first.

“You kept it behind the cantina bar,” Antonio said, “and you know how to use it. Sawed off just above the breech, it’s chambered for shells and fully loaded. Each twelve-gauge shell has nine lead balls, a third of an inch in diameter. You have a short barrel and a big spread pattern. At close range, you’ll take out lots of banditos with it.”

“You look concerned,” Eléna said.

“Neither of us knew we were on a bullion train, and now the train is stalled on the track. We have to be ready, is all.”

Eléna nodded.

Suddenly, shots rang out. Antonio glanced around the corner of the boxcar in time to see six of the eight men dragging the cottonwood go down. They did not look like men diving for cover. They went down like felled trees, and they were bleeding profusely.

Up ahead, the track had a slight bend. The fallen tree was far enough ahead of the locomotive that the Gatling gunner had clear aim at the bandits swarming the falling men, and it tore them to pieces. Unfortunately, the gunner’s friendly fire tore up his surviving comrades as well and now the banditos had spotted them. The bandits quickly picked off the man behind the Gatling.

Antonio was already scaling the boxcar’s end-ladder and going for the big gun. Straightening up, but keeping Rachel’s head squarely in her lap, Eléna raised the Greener to her shoulder. Sighting down the double barrels, she slipped her finger around the double triggers.

And waited for the attack to come.